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Re: Sriman Narayanan's Parathvam

From the Bhakti List Archives

Jayanthi Raghavan • March 30, 1999 


Shree Rama,
  This is in response to Sri Madhavkkannan's previous post.
    Thank you for taking time and replying to my messages.  I think maybe you misunderstood me at
least about the anya devatha part.
I was just trying to say that when we have not yet formally taken up prappati the worship of anya
devathas is not wrong, as in sin is not attached to this act.  First let me tell you where all
these questions and opinions come from, i am a very liberal person and my conception of the Divine
Couple is that of loving parents who are just waiting for us jivaatmas to just think of them and
pray to them.  I personally don't pray to anyother deities but Lakshmi Narayana and all the
paramabhagavathas like Hanuman, Ragavendra, Ramanujaacharya, Swami Desika and the like.  I don't
even pray to shiva, ganesha or the others but i do look upon them as elevated jivaatmas.  In my
eyes i view them as our older brothers whom we should look to for guidance to the Lord but we
should not worship them as independent beings.  Like i might have said before i if anything look
to these beings as my guides nothing more.
    If i may, i would like to give you a theory on why i think the shaivate aspect was excluded
from our sampradya for a while, because if we seriously believe in the vedas, itihasas and puranas
which we do, they show that the Supreme Being is without a single doubt Sriman Narayana.  And if
we actually believe that our sampradya is the original one which i definitely do, then as shown in
Ramayana, Mahabharata and the like, shiva, brahma and others where part of our sampradya in that
we could go through them to seek guidance to Sriman Narayana.  But i feel that over time due to
the fact that people decided to wrongly interprete the vedas and scriptures, that the idea of
shiva being supreme came and to combat this we as in our sampradya unknowing and probably
indirectly excluded all of them.  Please do not misunderstand this and think that i am against our
sampradya on the contrary i am a 100% for it because it is the path of the vedas, only we have the
correct answers to the bheda and abheda sutras and we
can answer them both without any compromisation unlike any other sampradya.  I am definitely not
saying to accept shiva or any other devatha as a being unto him/herself but rather as possible
teachers to The Divine Couple.
     You wrote:When we are to serve only one Master, Will the Master allow or accept seeing us
serving or obeying to his other servants, inf front of Him? Will
He not get angry? Or when He asks us to serve other servants of His (as in
the case of His Bhagawathas and devotees - tvath bruthua bruthya
parichaaraka bruthy bruthya) as a part of our duty to serve Him, won't He
feel angry if we don't?

    In regard to this statement, my conception of Sriman Narayana is devoid of all emotions that
are part of human nature, He is both the experiencer and giver of pure unconditional love, he
never angers or feels sad or anything like that, he is all compassionate, all beautiful, all
loving, all merciful, all perfect, all accepting, all supreme, all giving, and all all.  He
himself does not do any deeds but only his vyuhas ( i
believe this is the activities and the reason for the catur-vyuha avataras, from para-vaasudeva to
praduymana, aniruddha, samkrisana and so on) do the deeds because he is self-fullified.  I cannot
picture him like anything else, is my impression of Him wrong?  This is where i get my views from
because of his all perfection, he is all accessable and universal, there are many paths to him but
i know that our path is the
best and easiest, other paths can offer moksha but through there paths it is much harder unless
they surrender unto him.  Sriman Narayana is the father and mother, son and daughter and
everything he is verily our own individuality but it is not the other way.
Please respond i always find it very eye-opening to speak to other bhagavathas.  Tell me what you
think is wrong or right with my views.
Shree Rama
Shree Ramanujaaya Namah
Shree Lakshmi Narayana Dasan
 mukunda vijaya ragahavan